Scouting, Volume 52, Number 6, July-August 1964 Page: 1
32 p. : ill. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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By R. B. KIRKRATRICK
Reprinted by permission from National Wildlife Magazine
National Wildlife Federation, Washington, D.C.
There's something about water—a fascination that
seems almost inborn. Set a small boy down within
sight of a pond and watch where he goes. Nine times
out of ten, he'll head straight for the water. So will his
parents—though they'll stop on the way to pick up swim-
ming garb, water skis, or fishing tackle.
People take to water like ducks; and, as a result, water
has become a key element in American recreation. The
kind of water doesn't seem to make much difference. It
can be standing on end in an ocean surf, roaring white
through a mountain gorge, sliding quietly down a tree-
lined river, or sparkling blue in an inland lake. If it's
water, chances are there'll be people enjoying themselves
in it, on it, under it, or beside it.
A 1960 survey showed that 44 percent of our popula-
tion prefer their recreation in some activity involving
water. To that number, add the campers, picnickers,
hikers, and other nonwater-sports people who, neverthe-
less, prefer their sport near water of some kind, and you
have an awful lot of people.
Rising tide off sports
We are a nation of water-sports fans. Americans, for
instance, spend more time swimming than in any outdoor
activity except driving for pleasure—more than they do
at games or sports, more than walking for pleasure,
picnicking, or sight-seeing. Our two fastest-growing
sports are water skiing and skin diving. The recent boom
in boating has put 40 million of us on the water for fun.
There are lots of ways to have fun with water. You
can sw: n in it, fish in it, boat on it, ski on it, dive under
it, ride it on a surfboard or canoe—or simply wade around
its edges or lie in the sun beside it. Your water sport
can be as simple and inexpensive as a dip in the old
swimming hole or as complicated and costly as exploring
in your own submarine or crossing the Pacific in a cruis-
ing sloop. But most water sports, like many of the best
things in life, are free—or at least reasonable in cost.
Our continent is singularly blessed with a lot of water-
coasts, rivers, lakes, and artificial bodies—so much you'd
think there'd be plenty to go around. With 56,000 miles
of recreational shoreline on the oceans and Great Lakes,
why is the beach so packed on Sunday? With all our
empty waterways, why do boats crowd around a few
areas? Why are fishermen shoulder to shoulder while
miles of good streams go unfished? The answer—access
to public waters. Roads and easements and parks and
launching ramps—there simply aren't enough of them.
Access isn't the only thing troubling our waters. We
need more public facilities in most areas. We need to
protect the waters we do have from encroaching private
and commercial interests. We must keep our waters
clean and unpolluted—and work to restore those already
polluted so badly that they are lost to contact sports.
Sharing the waters
Where new artificial impoundments are being created,
we should plan in advance for the facilities to utilize
their recreational potential. Where waters are crowded,
we must find fair, peaceful, and voluntary ways to share
what we have. Where waters are unspoiled and free-
flowing, we need to set some areas aside for preservation
in their natural state, not only for their aesthetic and
scientific values, but for those ambitious outdoorsmen
who want to avoid crowds.
So, with all our great expanses of water, there is al-
ready a shortage. And, with our growing population and
growing demand for recreation, the demand is expected
to triple by the year 2000. If we don't start doing some-
thing now—we won't be ready for it.
Editor's Note: Wise use and planned expansion of our
recreational waters are musts for Scouting. Leaders agree
to this, since so much of our program is in, on, under, and
beside water and since they encounter increasing difficulty
in getting more boys to recreational waters. Boys also
agree —as revealed by two of our research surveys in
which outboard motorboating, camping, swimming, out-
door cooking, skin diving, sailing, water skiing, fishing,
and ice skating are among their dozen most popular out-
door activities. We Scouters are in the front rank in using
water to keep the outing in Scouting. Our obligation is to
stay up there in the battle to conserve and expand this
character-building environment.
Photo by Dennis Hallinan, at Cypress Gardens, Fla.
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Boy Scouts of America. Scouting, Volume 52, Number 6, July-August 1964, periodical, July 1964; New Brunswick, New Jersey. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth331752/m1/3/: accessed May 5, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Boy Scouts of America National Scouting Museum.